Octothorpe

John couldn’t check, Alison was wrong, and Liz is accurate.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: None

Letters of comment

Ali Baker (Facebook)

One-day Frances Hardinge symposium

Chris Garcia (email)

Frederik Coulter (Facebook)

Jake Casella Brookins (email)

“Hugo Overlaps: Some Comparisons” on Ancillary Review of Books

Casella’s SFF Award Comparator

Kate Macdonald (email)

Kin-Ming Looi (Facebook)

Mike Scott (Facebook)

Neil Ottenstein (Facebook)

Niall Harrison

Paul Weimer (email)

Raj (Mastodon)

The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops

European Coffee Trip

Scott Edelman (Facebook)

Broken Clock Café (Facebook, Instagram)

Tantrum Doughnuts

Pastéis Lisboa

Tammy Coxen (Bluesky and Facebook)

Meg MacDonald’s offer on Bluesky

Trish Matson (Bluesky)

We also heard from: DC, Farah Mendlesohn, Ivan Sinha, Karen Schaffer

Worldcon 2026: LAcon V in Los Angeles

It’s that special time of year again, the WSFS Business Meeting Agenda is out!

Business Meetings at LAcon V

17 July, 26 July, 1 August, 9 August, 30 August

Eating the Fantastic

Tammy Coxen wrote about TGI Fridays being American and how Alison “couldn’t be more wrong”

Eurocon 2026: Metropol Con in Berlin, Germany

Eurocon 2027: Fórum Fantástico in Lisbon, Portugal

Fantasycon/World Fantasy Con

Eurocon 2028: Bid for Croatia

Eurocon 2029: Bid for Warsaw, Poland

Eurocon 2030:

Bid for Birmingham, England

Bid for Copenhagen, Denmark

Other things Liz thinks are neat:

Eddie Clark has finished the Queersar not-an-award blog series

Picks

John: Widow’s Bay

Katie Dippold as the Babadook

Hugo, Girl!’s episode on Widow’s Bay

Alison: Portmeirion

Liz: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Credits

Cover art: “Alison the Goldfish” by Sue Mason

Alt text: A goldfish with the head of Alison wearing goggles and swim headphones. The words “Moist Ear Tunes*” appear at the top and the words “SF Fandom’s Premier Swim Headphone Podcast”, “Fun Fact: Moist Ear Tunes is a nonogram of Octothorpe 163” and “Sue Mason art appears courtesy of Plokta (thanks guys)” appear at the bottom. I know that Alison has forgotten to include the asterisk on the footnote, but since she also has the memory of a goldfish maybe it’s a delightful and multilayered joke.

Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John wasn’t overcrowded, Alison likes it small, and Liz has never been.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: Drug use, war (John’s pick)

Letters of comment

Christopher J Garcia (email)

DC (Bluesky)

Els (Bluesky)

Ivan Sinha (Facebook)

Premier Inns in Llandudno

Jonathan Harden (Bluesky)

Nicholas Whyte (email)

“Best Related Work eligibility for the Hugo Awards”

Scott Edelman (Bluesky)

Eating the Fantastic

Tommy Ferguson (email)

Trish Matson (Bluesky)

Shokz OpenSwim Pro

Alison: Raj (Mastodon)

We also heard from Ali Baker Brooks, aoanla, Jonathan Baddeley, Neil Ottenstein

Satellite 9

Ottoman Coffeehouse

Blood on the Clocktower

Bristol 1350

Codex Naturalis

Farah Mendlesohn is running a one-day event about Frances Hardinge

Worldcon 2028: Former bid for Nuremberg, Germany

Worldcon 2028: Bid for Brisbane, Australia

Paul Weimer (email)

Clouds and stuff

UK Games Expo 2026

“UK Games Expo 2026 breaks NEC attendance records as infrastructure buckles under massive crowds” at GeekNative by Andrew Girdwood

“Stupid Games, Stupid Prizes” by Tim Clare

Some discourse on Bluesky

Picks

John: Starship Salvager by Jarrom Strong

Alison: Hades II

Liz: Play Nice: The Rise, Fall and Future of Blizzard Entertainment by Jason Schreier

Game Over by David Sheff

Credits

Cover art: “Scenes of the Village” by Alison Scott

Alt text: A photograph of Portmeirion made to look like a stamp or a postcard, with words overlaid saying “Holiday greetings from Portmeirion, be seeing you…”. Above reads “Octothorpe 162” and below reads “Alison has gone on holiday again”.

Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John, Alison and Liz read the Clarke Award shortlist.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: Gun control and dystopian government (The Dream Hotel), body dysmorphia (Luminous), child abuse (The Salt Oracle)

The Arthur C Clarke Award

Medium

Substack

Website

This year’s shortlist

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

Luminous by Sylvia Park

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm

When There Are Wolves Again by EJ Swift

The Salt Oracle by Lorraine Wilson

This year’s submission list

Credits

Cover art: “Judge Coxon’s Last Stand” by Alison Scott

Alt text: John, wearing a Judge Dredd-style helmet with the Clarke Award logo on it and holding a lightsaber, dispenses judgement from behind a wall of books. The words “Octothorpe 161” appear above him, whilst words below say “Arthur C. Clarke Award 2026: Judge Coxon’s Last Stand”.

Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John is not firing on all cylinders, Alison has a code, and Liz downloaded the packet.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: Worms (Alison’s pick)

Letters of comment

Andrew Thompson (Mastodon 1, 2)

Chris Garcia (email)

Farah Mendlesohn (Facebook)

BSFA accounts

Jake Casella Brookins (Bluesky 1, 2)

Kate Macdonald (email)

Kiesa (Mastodon)

Mike Scott (Facebook)

Patrick Garvey (email)

Paul Weimer (email)

The Theory of Related-ivity by Heather Rose Jones

“Seattle Worldcon Poet Laureate Brandon O’Brien’s Opening Ceremonies poem”

Also pointed out by Kathy Bond (Bluesky)

Raj (Mastodon 1, 2)

We also heard from Ali Baker Brooks, Ang Rosin, Caroline Mullan, Constanze Hofmann, Dave Mansfield, DC, Duncan MacGregor, Els, Ivan Sinha, James Shields, Jonathan Baddeley, Kev McVeigh, Lilian Edwards, Phil Dyson, Tammy Coxen

Hugo Awards

Intergalactic Mixtape #50

Intergalactic Mixtape #53

Tim Vine is Plastic Elvis as Sam Salono in Rocker ‘Brella Fella

Picks

John: Citizen Sleeper

Alison: Falmouth Worm-Charming Championships

Liz: Hades II

Credits

Cover art: “Cover-Mounted CD-Rom” by Alison Scott

Alt text: A drawing of a CD-Rom with the words “Octothorpe 160” and “New!! Exclusive Octothorpe cover-mounted CD-Rom”.

Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John ran the Games Room, Alison ran the Newsletter, and Liz was on holiday.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to comment@octothorpecast.uk, join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode:

Ancillary Review of Books

Kickstarter ending at 04:59 BST (UTC+1) on 14 May 2026

“First of May”

Eastercon 2026: Iridescence in Birmingham

Batik

ConRunner

Daves Hot Chicken [do not get me started on the lack of apostrophe—John]

HaruhiCon

Alison’s 365 Play challenge

Eastercon 2027: Unconfined in Glasgow

Eastercon 2028: Contract in Birmingham

Guests of Honour: Adam Roberts, Aliya Whiteley and Chris Lintott

Eastercon 2029: Bid for Chronologicon in Chester

Aiming to cap at 650 people

Eastercon 2030: Bid from BSFA to join with Eurocon

British Science Fiction Association

Eastercon “early 2030s”: Rumblings from Northern Ireland

Picks

John: Scavengers Reign

Alison: What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed

The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed

Liz: Slow Gods by Claire North

Credits

Cover art: “Thanks Guys” by Alison Scott (comic by Randall Munroe used under a CC BY-NC 2.5 licence, typeface by Phil Elson used under a CC BY-NC 3.0 Unported licence)

Alt text: A stack of grey blocks being held up by two small stacks underneath. The stack is labelled “all current Eastercon digital infrastructure”, while the two small stacks are labelled “bits being thanklessly maintained by Andrew January” and “bits being thanklessly maintained by James Shields”. The words “Octothorpe 159” appear at the top.

Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)